HOF Wingman

I may be mistaken, but I believe Joel Otto was one that made an impact. I was reading here about the big kid from Michigan and it made me think Of a potential Joel Otto type role.

Pi my friend, I think the Sabres take the goalie regardless of the Ullmark situation. It finally sinks in for them that the goalie is the most important position and we need to be strong in net. I am talking top ten in the league strong.

Sabres will win the Cup in the next 3-5 years. Sabres make a deal with Seattle to take Miller and Seattle moves to the first overall pick in their expansion year. Seattle takes Owen Power. Sabres select Eklund second overall. After all the trading is complete, the Sabres select a goalie early in the first round. Still can't believe the Penguins traded Rene Robert for Eddie Shack. Jack is not as good as Jack thinks he is. His perimeter game is his downfall. It will not snow in Buffalo until 2022. Sabres prospects in the current pipeline are better than we first thought. Led by JJ who becomes an All star in the 23-24 season. The best food on the planet is found in WNY.

Would Duncan be considered a competent goalie?

I agree and posted this baby a couple weeks ago: I thought Sam was the best player in that draft at the time especially coming off a great Junior Gold Medal where he was the best player on team Canada that included a young McDavid. I also liked Sam because of his pedigree. His Father Paul was one of the most underrated players in the league when he played for Calgary and helped the Flames win a Cup during the Gretzky years. His father often played very well when the Flames and Oilers went toe to toe. I had no problem with taking Sam in the draft and I still don't. Sam is a very good player and is getting better. I think one of our best players and very consistent. I think we will bethankful we have him in the very near future.

I thought Sam was the best player in that draft at the time especially coming off a great Junior Gold Medal where he was the best player on team Canada that included a young McDavid. I also liked Sam because of his pedigree. His Father Paul was one of the most underrated players in the league when he played for Calgary and helped the Flames win a Cup during the Gretzky years. His father often played very well when the Flames and Oilers went toe to toe. I had no problem with taking Sam in the draft and I still don't. Sam is a very good player and is getting better. I think one of our best players and very consistent. I think we will be thankful we have him in the very near future. Nylander on the other hand, I was red smokin hot that we took him when we were crying for defensive help and Sergachev was right freakin there. I consider that the Sabres Donte Whitner pick. And his father was a softy.

I want to win.

If my memory serves me, we once had a scouting department that was the envy of the league. Then Golisano and Quinn decided we could reduce expenses by gutting the scouting department by going to video scouting. A number of scouts went out the door including Luce, Carriere, Benning, etc. that brought in many foundational pieces. If you ask me, that is when this mess started. Now can we get out of it and hire the best Personnel people available to build a championship contender? The question of the day. This is where we should be putting our resources. The most important people in your organization are Personnel people.

Do we know who will be invited to camp yet?

My gosh that is terrible drafting. We were tanking before we tanked. It looks like we have a couple quality prospects from last year and this year. Maybe we we have learned we need quality players to compete for championships.

I did a little research on the Mittlestadt pick. Turns out it was probably the best option for us. Casey has a some skill and hopefully he can translate that to production with good coaching and development. If you look at the overall production of that draft you will see the top five players drafted have done very well. After that, there is a big dropoff. So, if you are making a selection at number 8 after the can't miss players are gone, take the prospect with the upside. At the time, Casey had upside and I think he still does. He may not be an All-Star caliber, but he could still develop into a contributor for us.

I was thinking the same thing Thorny. The Quinn pick (and nothing against Quinn) has need written all over it. We need RW depth and we need to do something with Rheinhart. I wonder what happens next with Sam.

I was not a josh Rosen fan. But we could have turned a weakness at center into a strength by adding Rossi. We potentially could have been three/four deep at the position. Wingers are easier to come by. Difference makers at Center are not.

Still can’t get over passing on Rossi. Has that Witner/Ngata feel.

We get to choose between Perfetti and Rossi. Which means it will probably be Askarov.

Who do we prefer, Perfetti or Rossi?

Now we need both defensemen to go before we pick.

Ok, I went old school with my yodel comment. Back in the day Craig Janney and Joey Juneau were good young players with Boston. And they wanted more money. A reporter asked Harry Sinden about their threat to play in Switzerland. His response was “better start yodeling” or something like it. I still chuckle over it.

In deference to Harry Sinden, maybe Hutton could learn to yodel?

Thank you Mr. Amerk! I have read quite a bit on this board about trading the pick for a proven player. I am not against it, but I wonder how we pry a good youngish proven player from other teams. The players we want are the players they will want to keep. I read a lot about the 2C role and it’s important and we need it badly, but from what I see, if we have a top 5 or even top ten goaltender we are in the playoffs. We give up too many soft goals, and it hurts us on the PK as well. After the performance of our backup last year, we need another option. Just a couple thoughts. Glad to be part of the group here. Let’s go Buffalo!

Thanks. Great to be on the Board! Great conversation here. Really enjoy the draft/prospect evaluation. BTW, Gold 43-B-4&5.

Liger, I have been a lurker for almost two decades but admire your posts and work you are putting in to evaluate draft prospects. I was contemplating your post and was wondering if you think we need to move up considering the depth of talented players in the top 8. Especially if we are fortunate enough to have one maybe two defenders come off the board before we pick.